She had meant to take him with her.

For Henry. For her one and only son.

If she could eliminate Andrea even at the cost of herself, Henry would automatically claim the right of succession. She had intended to show this arrogant creature the depth of a mother’s love, capable of reversing everything.

And yet……

“Kgh.”

Red blood surged from her mouth again.

Fabienne’s eyelids fluttered as consciousness slipped away. In her dimming eyes, Andrea was roaring like a wounded animal.

The thought that she had at least dealt him a blow made a faint, crooked smile escape her.

“Tell me! Tell me!!!”

Andrea looked terrified that Fabienne would die without revealing where Riley was. She savored that, smiling faintly, and closed her eyes.

The sound of his screaming grew muffled and distant in her ears.

She had not managed to finish the crown prince, but the thought of clutching to the end the precious thing he was howling for, refusing to release it even in death, sent a thrill through her.

Fabienne parted her lips with great effort and murmured.

“That woman is somewhere else. You won’t be able to live with a clear head anymore.”

She tried to smile, but foamy blood pooled in her mouth and made it impossible.

After coughing up blood several more times, Fabienne managed one last smirk at the screaming Andrea.

“Give up. That woman, by now……”

Her eyes drifted to the utterly destroyed surroundings and came back.

“……must be dead.”

She spent the last of her strength curling her lips to mock her enemy, and her head fell.

That was the end.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Rrrrrr!

The space shook again with a sound like rolling thunder.

BOOM!

“Eek!”

Riley, seized with terror, pressed herself even further into the corner and curled up tight.

The first collapse had already left her barely holding herself together, and before she could even gather her wits, the signs of a second collapse sent her into a panic.

Stone dust billowed up thickly in the dark and poured into her mouth, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

The building collapsed!

Her mind went white and she could see nothing.

Her heart was pounding so hard it would not settle, and she was terrified the ceiling that had barely stopped above her would come down again. The fear that she might be crushed under falling stone at any moment overwhelmed her.

What is going to happen to me now?

Even if it did not collapse further, what if she was left here like this…… what if this place became her grave?

Every desperate question swirled through her mind.

She was alone in a place like a tomb.

How long could she last here…… and more than that, would anyone come for her at all?

Fear crashed over her like a wave.

In that moment, the first person she thought of was Andrea.

Had His Highness figured out where this place was by now?

Or perhaps he had no idea at all.

“Hic……”

She had been anxiously chewing her nails when the urge to cry surged up, and she clapped her own hand over her mouth.

But even with her mouth covered, the desperate thoughts kept wearing her down.

He doesn’t know where this is either, so how would His Highness possibly find me.

Was she going to suffocate and die in the dark here, with no one coming to save her?

Whether from the stone dust or the psychological pressure, she genuinely could not breathe well. Riley was crying without even realizing it, tears streaming down her face as she choked and gasped.

Right then, a rustling sound came from a dark corner.

She hiccupped and turned to look. In the darkness, someone was struggling through a pile of rubble and twisted metal framework.

After a long effort, that someone crawled out through a narrow gap.

It was the painter, Bellon.

Covered in dust, Bellon coughed and asked.

“A, are you all right, Miss Riley?”

Riley nodded vigorously, tears scattered all over her face.

Relief washed over her like a child’s.

The terror of believing she had been left alone in this enormous tomb just moments ago was beyond words. Their situation had not improved, but having one more person present was at least enough to keep her from crying for now.

“A, are you hurt anywhere?”

She even found the room to worry about someone else.

“No. I got some scrapes getting out, but I was lucky. Good thing I’ve been eating less and gotten thinner.”

Bellon crouched carefully beside Riley and offered uncertain comfort.

“Someone will definitely come to rescue us. There’s no need to despair.”

“I wonder…… Do you know where we are, Mr. Bellon?”

Bellon flinched at Riley’s tearful question and could only shake his head weakly. Seeing that, she felt her despair deepen.

Even so, Bellon held onto his own hope and spoke with conviction.

“We don’t know where we are, but the people coming to rescue you will have already figured it out! I put hints about this location into the last illustration.”

But the words did not offer much comfort.

When Riley’s tears would not stop, he fidgeted like someone trying to soothe a younger sister and quickly added.

“If it’s your, um, sweetheart, surely he would have noticed by now?”

At that, Riley blinked her eyes, heavy with tears.

“……My sweetheart? How do you know about that, Mr. Bellon?”

Bellon coughed and scratched his head, coming clean.

“You may not remember me, Miss Riley, but I actually remember both of you. I’m a painter who works on Montmartre hill.”

“Oh!”

“You came with a wonderful companion that day. You were a remarkably striking couple, and the gentleman paid very generously, so you stayed in my memory.”

“……I see.”

Riley was a little surprised, but that was all. This kind of introduction felt only bleak and hollow under the circumstances.

But Bellon kept talking.

“Another reason I remember is that before the gentleman left, he borrowed a sea sponge from me.”

“Pardon? A sea…… sponge?”

She asked back without understanding, and as she did, her racing heart gradually settled and curiosity took hold.

“Yes, painters often use sea sponges to dab paint or mix new colors. I had one nearby that day, and before the gentleman left, he asked if he could have it.”

“……?”

Riley was genuinely curious now, and despite the terrible circumstances, she listened closely.

“I had already received more than enough gold, so I handed over a fresh sponge without thinking twice. But after he left, I found myself wondering.”

At that, Riley let out a small sound of realization.

Thinking back, she had been wearing a new pair of patent leather shoes that day.

But from years of wearing men’s shoes and walking with a wide stride, her feet had started to ache.

She had been wriggling her toes throughout the portrait sitting, and Andrea, noticing, had abruptly dropped to one knee and slipped a soft sponge inside her shoe.

In the moment she had thought, where on earth did he get that, but her feet felt so much better that her mood lifted and she forgot everything else.

As the old memory came back to her piece by piece, Bellon confirmed the rest.

“Forgive me, but I watched the two of you very closely as you left. And then I saw the gentleman slip the sponge he had taken from me into Miss Riley’s shoe, and I was moved. Ah, I thought, that is true love.”

Riley flushed in the dark.

“I observe and paint so many couples that I’ve developed a certain ability to see into their hearts.”

Bellon’s calm words did not sound like boasting or a joke. They reached Riley as something genuine.

“This couple loves each other. This man despises the woman but pretends to love her on the surface. This woman is already thinking of leaving. The man loves more, but the woman doesn’t know it. Things like that. You feel it intuitively when you’re drawing portraits.”

The soft voice echoed quietly against the stone walls, and Riley’s heart began to slowly settle.

“I remember that the gentleman’s eyes were full of smiles the whole time I was drawing. He looked genuinely happy. And he was very perceptive, and I believe that kind of attentiveness toward another person comes from affection. So he will absolutely come for you. Please hold on a little longer, Miss Riley. I need to be rescued along with you, after all.”

The self-pitying note in the comfort made Riley laugh faintly through the tear tracks on her face.

They both knew that Bellon had been taken as a secondary consequence of her own situation, and yet he said this, and she was truly grateful.

The remarkable things he had told her lingered and brought a steadying calm to her shaken mind.

Riley decided to face the truth squarely: Andrea loved her more than she had guessed.

She chose to believe it.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

But when days passed with nothing happening, Riley no longer had the energy to think clearly about anything.

The curtain of darkness, with no way to tell day from night, never lifted, and the inability to move her body freely was its own torment.

Fortunately Bellon had a small amount of water with him, and they shared it between them to hold on.

If he had not been beside her, she thought she might have gone mad in this tomb-like ruin. It was a strange situation, desperate and yet somehow relieved at the same time.

So the two of them huddled beneath the collapsed stone walls and waited endlessly, listening for any sound from outside.